Ozymandias
by nvzblgrrl
Summary: Time Lady Clara echo. One-Shot.
1. Chapter 1

I had looked into the Untempered Schism. I had known this moment was coming. You, me, and a desolate stretch of Type 40 TARDISes. Destiny or something more base?

It's all the same in the end.

You, me, and the universe at our fingertips.

It was hard to believe in a random universe when your existence was hinged on the existence of one human doing something very heroic, very brave, and very, very stupid.

It was hard to feel real when you were a mere reflection of a girl who shattered herself across a Time Lord's timeline in the name of… what, love? A hundred thousand mirrors reflecting different sides of the original subject without end, add infimum, frozen in a split second and then shattered across the universe. All likely ignorant of what they really were.

But unlike them, I was a Time Lord. I could feel the time-lines, the tangle of existence all sourcing from that one humble root, itching against my mind. Sometimes, I could even taste the memories of the mes-that-weren't.

And I could feel every single second of Clara loving someone who she could never hope to touch.

"Doctor."

And that's how I knew Who you were. Not just a classmate. Not just a fellow master of time and space. You were important. Precious. Worth protecting.

"Doctor."

Second hand sentiment from a girl who should have known better. The few degrees of differentiation between she and me don't seem like nearly enough.

But I am a Time Lord. Aloofness is a trained skill. I can look down my nose at anyone. Even the Doctor.

"Yes, what is it?"

You turned, everything about you screaming defensiveness. Caught in the act of theft with a girl who called you 'Grandfather'. So many broken rules.

"You're about to make a very big mistake."

And without me, you would be nothing. It would take merely one alarm. One simple act in accordance with everything I've ever been taught. I would be alone in the universe. Unique. Inimitable. Myself.

It would be easy. So very, very easy.

"Take the next one over. She's what you're looking for." I said, breaking the silence I'd allowed to stretch out for far too long.

I don't believe in easy. I don't believe in comfortable. I believe in right.

Never cruel. Never cowardly.

A gift from Clara. The me that isn't me and is my mother and my sister and a ghost all at once.

You blinked. For a moment in time, I am unique in your mind. It will pass. Clara has scattered herself among the cosmos and in that storm of leaves, all brown haired and brown eyed with the same exact face, and I will be just the first to strike you full in the face. Once you step into that wider universe, I will cease to exist in your mind.

But I will have still thrown the rock.

And those ripples will spread.

The miracles of time travel. Revealing that the entire universe runs on a chain of coincidences and glitches occasionally bolstered by deliberate moves.

"What are you waiting for?" I asked. "Run, you clever boy. Run and remember."

You listen – a rare occurrence, a hundred thousand lives not mine tell me – and disappear into the only TARDIS that matters, leaving me behind by myself in a hall of ancient time machines slated for death.

Clara would have felt lost. Alone. Without you, she is a leaf adrift without wind.

I am not Clara Oswin Oswald. I am not human. I am a Time Lord. And I make my own path.

I choose the TARDIS you would have taken for yourself and dematerialize, even as less friendly company arrives to stop me.

My name is Ozymandias. Look upon my works, ye mighty, ye tyrants, and all you evil creatures that crawl in the corners of the universe, and despair.


	2. Chapter 2

Doctor. My dear Doctor.

You probably don't recognize this handwriting. You probably don't recognize the name attached.

If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me.

As you are probably never going to get this letter, barring some interference as is so common where you are concerned, that's fine.

It's been a long time since I last saw you, yet, having spent so many years in your orbit, there is a crystal clear picture of you in my mind. Not exactly a picture, but a sketch of your essential character. Though I know all of your faces, it's the current that runs beneath the surface that is what makes you.

It is that which drove me to become what I… am. Was. And, depending on where you are standing, will be.

I had one task to achieve in my existence and, having completed it, was at loose ends. There was no reason for me to continue being, yet, I was loathe to just stop. So I looked at the person who I admire most and did what he would do.

Steal a TARDIS and see the universe.

I fell into your habits quickly, Doctor. I took companions, got involved, wore ridiculous things while spouting ludicrous aesops inapplicable to the situation at hand. At the time, it was embarrassing, but now that I am, presumably, dead in the most permanent sense, that isn't an issue and I cannot list it as a great regret. I loved, I lost, I lived, and I only rarely got what I really wanted, but when I did, it was fantastic.

If you received this letter and cannot for the life of you figure out the who or the why, see if you can cast your memory back to the day you stole the TARDIS. Alternatively, the day she stole you. Consider an impossible girl, if you can remember one face among the dozens if not hundreds of companions you have had over the years.

If you can remember her and her puzzle, then the rest of the pieces will fall into place.

The face has changed since, many times over, in fact, but my ***words scribbled out*** feelings towards you have remained much the same. Affection and admiration, because even when you made mistakes, don't deny that you haven't, you always did your best to make them right.

The Doctor is the man who makes everyone better, is he not?

You might wonder why I write now instead of making contact at some earlier point in time since I seem to know your ways so well.

Well, in case you haven't noticed, there's a war on. The Time War, of which there will be no winners, only survivors. I have doubts as to if I will be one of them.

You would probably point out that this is a bad time to be writing letters. My counterpoint is that if these things remain unsaid, the regret of silence will find some way to follow me beyond the grave and, even now, as time draws nearer for me to resume fighting, the weight of these words make it difficult ***line trails off***

To put it shortly, you were and still remain one of, if not the, most important person in my universe. You altered the constellations of my reality, and showed me galaxies beyond my imagining. You showed me kindness and courage and a thousand other things that carry me through my darkest days. Without you, I would not exist.

If that is not reason enough to love someone, yes, I said it, I know not what. So yes, Doctor, these words needed to be written down. If you find them, do not look upon them and despair.

I have lived. I have loved. And I have had the pleasure of knowing you.

Love,

Ozymandias


End file.
